Friday, July 15, 2005
Friday Baja BloggingAh, Baja. How I miss you. 5:02:42 PM |  
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The rise of Christian Fascism: the Blue Voice on Pat Robertson's anti-semitismBlue Voice's Bruce Miller looks back at Michael Lind's 1995 review of Pat Roberton's influential book, The New World Order, and finds the dark heart of the Christian Right: virulent anti-semitism. 10:07:12 AM | The conspiracy Robertson lays out is so outlandish, so preposterous, it seems it must be coming from his desire to shield his own culpability. His assertion that it was jewish bankers who fueled communism and started the wars of the past two centuries in order to profit from them is almost hilarious given that our nation's other premier anti-semite, Henry Ford, profited so immensely from the Good War, just as plenty of Christians are profiting off of our wars today. The Christian Fascists are so full of contradiction it's hard to know where to begin when criticizing them. I find it absurd that we call Tom Cruise nuts for believing in Scientology while we insist the three desert religions as "real." Just because they're old and have been around a long time doesn't mean they are any more "real" than Scientology. Their beliefs are just as nuts. This American Life had a fabulous show last month called "Godless America" (You can listen to it for free with Real Player. Go to the 2005 archive, then chose episode 290). In Act II, comedian Julia Sweeney reads the bible in a bible study class at her Catholic church and is shocked when she finds out what's really in there: horrific stories of death and destruction, dark fantasies and absurd ideas. Reading the bible makes her lose her religion, and she questions whether anyone who "believes" has actually read the Good Book. I understand that some people need "faith" in something they cannot see or confirm in order to make it through life. We're faced with hardship and loss and instability. As the Buddhists say, this makes life "unsatisfactory" and fills us with fear. We search for something unchanging and solid to ease our feelings of insecurity. But if we face reality, we have to admit that all religions based on faith in something unknowable and unseen are spurious, not just scientology and other new age cults. Unfortunately, Christian fundamentalists are determined to take over our country and turn us into a Christian Fascist state. They are as self-righteous in their beliefs as Islamic fanatics who walk into subways and blow themselves up. No, they aren't suicidal. They prefer to send other people off to die for them. But in the US they are more influential. They have more power. And therefore they are more dangerous. Wole Soyinka points out in The Climate of Fear that "The coupling within 'for God and country' is no historic accident." If there's any conspiracy, that's it.
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Last update: 8/3/05; 12:28:35 AM .
